


The Avengers Take Care of Their Own

by AngeNoir



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: avengerkink, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, team rallying around Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 14:21:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Avengers can't figure out what's bothering Tony, they call Pepper in. Only she can't find it out, either, and they have to enlist JARVIS, but he won't tell them straight out - so the Avengers decide to take matters into their own hand.</p><p>Or: Steve is a boss, Bruce is a good friend, Natasha and Clint and Thor are best pals, Tony is insecure, and Pepper just wants her boyfriend back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Avengers Take Care of Their Own

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever avengerkink fill. EVER. I was directed there by a friend and I saw this prompt and instead of doing my thirty minute presentation OR my game theory homework, I wrote this. Hopefully with this out of my head, I can actually be productive.
> 
> Prompt is in the end-notes, because I didn't want to give it away here.

“I’m just worried about you, Tony.”

Tony smiled up at her, and she could see the exhaustion in his eyes, the bone-deep weariness, and - dare she say it - a deep-seated fear she didn’t understand no matter how much she tried. “I’m fine, Pepperpot, you worry too much, does SI need those schematics? Because I told them they'd get them by the end of the week, not before—”

Swallowing hard, she shook her head. “No, no one’s asking for anything. You’ve been... very productive. Very productive, and I’m beginning to worry a little bit.”

Tony waved a hand at her and turned to the desk where he had three open projects. New arrowheads for Clint, a chemical compound that could be for Bruce or for Steve, and something full of wires and probes that could be for anything; beyond those three, she could see files of other projects, too many projects, and their shared bed had been empty of him for too long. She remembered a time when he’d been as erratic, as manic in his inventions and life, and she didn’t like the implications.

But she couldn’t say anything, either, not if he didn’t give her an opening to start with.

So she smiled weakly and handed him the clipboard clutched in white-knuckled hands. “If you’re sure,” she murmured, and he scrawled his name sloppily at the bottom of the clipboard before handing it back to her.

She exited his workshop, where Bruce sat, fingers tapping nervously against his thigh. When the door was fully closed, he raised a hopeful eyebrow.

She dropped her gaze and shook her head.

He let out a sigh, shoulders slumping. “I could hope,” he murmured. “Did he say anything at all?”

“No,” she responded, moving to the elevator that would take the two of them down to the common kitchen. “He has three projects up, one for arrowheads, one chemical compound, and a mess of wires I can't understand.”

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “Clint mentioned an arrowhead that could be called back to his quiver. It was a passing mention. And Steve got his uniform melted last battle, and Tony told him he’d look into reinforcing the material. The wires... I don't know what those could be. But we’re trying not to mention new projects in front of him—”

The two of them entered the kitchen, where the other Avengers sat around the table or leaned against counters. As one, the team looked up with varying expressions of eagerness and hope, only to have all those looks fade into worry and concern when Pepper shook her head in the negative.

“It is not right that our friend work himself to his very bones. If he is disturbed by something, surely we should know what it is and attempt to fix it,” Thor rumbled from where he sat next to Clint and Natasha.

Steve, who was leaning against the counter by the coffeepot, sighed. “I didn’t really want to do this,” he said quietly. “I don’t think it’ll do anything. But Pepper, you know him best. Is this normal?”

She didn’t want to invade Tony’s privacy either, but… “How long has he been like this?”

“Easily a month. Closer to two months,” Clint replied promptly. “We’d – it’d been right after the whole… the whole alien debacle.” Natasha patted his arm lightly – Clint had taken Coulson’s death a lot harder than anyone else.

It had been about seven weeks since Pepper had stood in the shambles of Tony’s penthouse and slapped him and then kissed him for worrying her so. Tony’d been having nightmares – still had them, from what she could tell, though she’d not personally witnessed any in the past week. Then again, he hadn’t slept in their room for the past week, either. But it’d been seven weeks of rebuilding, of doing all the heavy lifting and hiring only minimal outside help. New York was still greatly damaged by the aliens and their warship-creatures, still was trying to get pulled back together. Pepper had been running interference – SI stocks had plummeted because investors blamed Iron Man for the mess that was of New York, and because Tony had adamantly refused to let her capitalize off of the fact that he’d flown a nuke into the sky.

The building had gone faster when Steve, who’d driven off at the end of it all, appeared in the lobby of the tower five weeks ago and offered to lend a hand. At that point, she’d noticed Tony was a bit more erratic than normal, but generally speaking he still seemed fine, still was sleeping every night in their shared bedroom. Tony had said over and over that Steve didn’t need to help Tony, that Tony could handle it, and she’d had to do some major convincing to make Tony accept Steve’s help.

She’d written that off as residual hero worship gone sour; Tony never liked accepting help from those that had denied him it earlier.

A week or two later, Natasha and Clint had appeared, almost literally. Pepper had enjoyed having Natasha around; Natasha could make her loosen up, and Clint needed the people around him while still on probation with SHIELD.

“You weren’t there at the beginning—” Pepper began.

Natasha shook her head, interrupting. “We were. Tony was constantly in and out of the helicarrier the week after. Arranging Coulson’s funeral, remember? We came because we wanted to keep a sharper eye on him, because he’d been acting pretty strange on the helicarrier.”

“And I couldn’t stand to be around those self-righteous pricks any longer,” Clint muttered.

Inclining her head, Natasha echoed, “And we couldn’t stand to be around those that faulted us for what happened any longer.”

“My way was more colorful,” Clint grunted.

“Heimdall sent me back here to Midgard because there was uneasiness in my fellow warriors,” Thor admitted. “To reopen the Bifrost, however, took much strength and time. I would have come sooner, had I been able.”

Bruce let out a sigh and poked at the toaster oven. “And I was a bit too sunk in my own research to notice until I realized that the reason my research was proceeding so quickly was because of how much time Tony spent with me late at night in the lab – even though he was easily, and still is, cranking out upgrade after upgrade for all of us.”

Pepper rubbed her temple and took a deep breath. “No reason at all? Nothing that could have set him off? No arguments? Now’s not the time to hide it, because the last time he was like this, he was dying, and I’d rather it have something one of you shouted at him than something like that.”

Bruce grunted. “If we could have fixed it, we wouldn’t have called you in. Sorry Pepper, but we know you’re busy. We thought, for a while, that maybe your relationship was on the rocks, but you seem fine, it’s just… him.”

“I – he’s been distant, but that’s no different than any other day. What really tipped me off was that I don’t have board members harassing me for Tony’s presence. He’s been showing up to every meeting unprompted, and he’s never done that, not even when he was dying.” It still hurt to say, and she looked over at Natasha. Natasha smiled sympathetically.

“If none of us have an idea,” Steve said again, prompting them towards what Pepper – and the others, but really, Pepper the most – didn’t want to do.

Taking a deep breath, Pepper moved to the table and sat down opposite Thor. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, Ms. Potts?”

Pepper licked her lips and said softly, “JARVIS, code alpha-78-tango-11.”

There was a pause, and then the AI’s voice sounded reluctantly, “Acknowledged, Ms. Potts, but I shall have to inform Sir that you have called up the protocols instituted specifically to save Sir’s life.”

“You and I both know that you don’t need to inform him unless he asks,” Pepper responded. “And we’re all very, very worried about Tony.”

There was another pause, and JARVIS said even more reluctantly, “If you call up these protocols, I have formal record of your request into Sir’s privacy. However, if you merely ask of me what you want, I will attempt to aid you to the best of my ability, and no protocols have to be instituted.”

“The fact that Tony made an AI that can dance around his privacy issues—” Clint began, but Thor put a hand on Clint’s shoulder to quiet him.

“JARVIS, we’d like to know why Tony’s acting this way. Every time we go and see him, he just gives us more tech, and while we like it, don’t get us wrong, we don’t – we want him to be okay. He’s more than the guy that fixes our stuff, you know? He’s a part of this team,” Steve said softly. Pepper smiled up at him, drained from yet another catastrophe that centered around her boss and overall infuriating boyfriend, and he smiled tiredly back at her.

For a long moment, there wasn’t anything at all, and Pepper wondered if Tony had somehow known they were asking and had shut down JARVIS, but then a screen projected on the far wall, showing a graph with notable spikes and jumps, the line steadily climbing higher and higher. “While my privacy protocols heavily censor most data about Sir, I can tell you that compiled before you is the amount of Sir’s projects over the time period of the past eight weeks. I can say that this graph will help aid you in determining the root of his problem, but beyond this I cannot tell you anymore. And, because you have not invoked my fail-safe protocols for Sir’s life, I have no need nor any inclination to inform Sir that you requested anything from me.”

“How does that—” Thor began, but Natasha smoothly got to her feet and walked over to the wall.

“Thank you, JARVIS.”

“My pleasure, Ms. Potts,” JARVIS responded.

At the wall, Natasha traced the path of the line curiously. “It’s fairly flat at the beginning, the week of the whole invasion, and then projects start piling up.” She poked at one dot, and a secondary screen popped up. She tilted her head sideways, frowning at it, before saying slowly, “Three days after the invasion, Tony had five projects underway, I think? If I’m reading this right – two for SI, one for the Avengers, and two for SHIELD. Then it starts to climb up, spiking around here…”

She trailed off, then asked, “Clint, what day did Tony first visit SHIELD’s helicarrier?”

“Dunno,” he responded quietly. “Was kinda focused on other things, really.”

“He went about four days after we sent Loki off, once he’d been sure that work started on his tower and that he’d gotten done what Pepper wanted,” Bruce offered. “He came back really jumpy but I thought it was just because he was handling Coulson’s funeral personally.”

“I think…” Natasha murmured, following the line gently, “—I think each spike corresponds with a visit to the helicarrier, or to a meeting. If I can remember correctly. I don’t seem him as much as you do, Bruce.”

By now, Bruce had moved over to Natasha’s side and he was tracing the graph with his eyes. “No names of the projects, of course; some of these must be confidential. But JARVIS let us know which ones go where, and many of Tony’s personal projects have pretty much disappeared. It’s all Avengers and SHIELD, now, with a smattering of SI thrown in.”

“Someone will have to go with him when he next visits the helicarrier, then,” Clint said.

There was a moment of silence, Thor frowning thoughtfully, Bruce and Natasha bent over the graph, murmuring to one another over the lines, Clint tapping fingers restlessly against the table, and then Steve moved over to Pepper’s side and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ll take care of it, ma’am. We all worry about Tony, too, and we know you’re busy.”

“I should be there for him,” she protested weakly, but Clint was already shaking his head.

Before he could say anything, though, Thor reached across the table and patted her hand genially. “Fear not, my lady, we are his close friends and shield brothers; we will discover what is troubling him and inform you of all. But we must try to aid him, as he has done much for us.”

 

*

“Snag in the plans,” Natasha grunted into the phone as she hurriedly buckled herself into the helicarrier.

“Snag? What snag?” Pepper’s voice asked from the speakers as Clint hopped in and grabbed onto the railing, gesturing for her to take off. Steve was already in the co-pilot’s seat beside her, Bruce strapped in and meditating very, very hard. Thor watched the skies worriedly as she closed the loading bay and moved the small jet out onto the balcony and into the sky.

“Tony doesn’t want us around. We’re gonna have to come up with a reason for why we’re showing up on the helicarrier, but I swear he nearly had a nervous breakdown when Bruce insisted on coming along with him to the helicarrier.” Natasha couldn’t fly as fast as Tony could in the suit, which was a blessing as that meant that he wouldn’t see them all following him, but that didn’t change the fact that they would have to come up with _something_ for why they were there—

There was a small crackle, muted voices over the speakerphone, and then Pepper began, “Well… I can’t really see why he’d say that… it’s supposed to be a simple check-up, making sure there’s no problem with the new engines he designed. Maybe – no, you know, I really don’t know why he’d be stubborn about it.”

“More than stubborn,” Steve said quietly, looking back over at Bruce. “Panicked. I’d say scared, even. He lashed out pretty hard against Bruce.”

For a long moment, there was nothing at all. Bruce and Tony were best buddies, and Tony may continually push and tease Bruce out of his comfort zone, but an aggressive attack like the one Tony had done… wasn’t normal by any stretch of the imagination.

“Let me know how it goes,” Pepper finally said, and there was a click as she hung up.

Natasha looked over at Steve, who was smiling grimly. “I think it’s time to visit the SHIELD psychiatric unit and see if Clint’s been cleared for SHIELD duty, don’t you?”

“Hey!” Clint snapped.

“We need an excuse to be there, Clint, no matter how flimsy,” Natasha growled back at him.

Folding his arms, he glared at her and pointed out, “That doesn’t explain everyone else, though.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Steve said too calmly. “Natasha and you will go down to the psych department and I’ll find Tony. Thor, Bruce – I want you two to stay on the jet. Just in case. If you want, you can go with Clint and Natasha to psych but I’ll be the only one to track Tony down.”

“As much as you two have been getting along together better than before, you’re still not exactly easy with one another,” Clint started, but Thor laughed slightly.

“There is never a better prick to make one speak more than one meant than your rival questioning you. Loki often would try to make me think beyond myself by such tactics. I trust you will get to the bottom of this, Captain.”

Bruce let out a long breath and opened his eyes – the green cast of his skin had faded, thankfully – to lock eyes with Steve. “We might be off-base with this, you know. It could be something else. Maybe something _has_ messed up with his arc reactor and we just don’t know. Maybe he’s going here to try and get it fixed. Coincidence never equates to causality, not without extensive tests.”

“It’s the only thing we have to go on right now,” Steve said, and the only thing that betrayed his worry was his tight grip on the controls as the helicarrier came into view.

Natasha rattled off the access codes and they were granted permission to land. Steve looked at Clint and Natasha steadily. “I need you to make sure they don’t announce our presence to anyone. I don’t want it coming across the comm. units or speakers; I don’t want Tony given forewarning. Alright?”

“Eh. We’ll give them something else to focus on, right?” Clint nudged Natasha, and then strode out of the jet.

A SHIELD agent came up, saluting smartly at Natasha who ignored him. Clint scowled at the agent and growled, “Look, I’ve been waiting patiently, and you guys promised you’d give me the results of my evals last week. Natasha says she knows that you guys have it done, so why wasn’t it sent to me? Did you guys conveniently forget my email address?”

The SHIELD agent – a young kid named Robert Hughs – blinked in confusion and ventured, “I… don’t know what you’re talking about? Did you talk to the doctors?”

“That’s why I’m here,” Clint growled, pushing past Agent Hughs and making his way into the body of the helicarrier.

Natasha grumbled something under her breath in Russian and turned to Agent Hughs. “Look, would you mind running to the bridge and finding Agent Hill for me? Since the last time Clint insisted on being around SHIELD agents, well… I’d rather give her a heads up. And I’d rather not warn the other agents ahead of time, because we’ve already got one idiot on the warpath – I don’t need him finding someone to start a fight with.”

“Well – well, protocol says that—” Agent Hughs blinked as Thor and Bruce exited the jet, and his eyes widened. “Why are _they_ here?” he squeaked.

Bruce smiled with that wry edge that led many to wonder whether he was actually smiling or just baring his teeth at them in a sadistic snarl. “We’re here to make certain that Clint hasn’t been denied full reinstatement due to the actions of Loki.”

“Aye, friend.” Thor reached out and clapped the kid on the back, nearly causing him to fall into Natasha. Bruce caught him before he could, even as Thor sighed mightily. “Indeed, I come prepared to witness what the staff of my brother could do, so that these Midgardian healers might understand the pain my brother-in-arms had to face and so that they might grant him full status as warrior, as is his right.”

Hughs blinked again, and swallowed hard. “I’m – I’m supposed to report all landings—”

“ _Oy vey_ – report the landing, but only record it down, don’t pass it along. That’s not against protocol, right? We’ll be getting Agent Hill on it right away and if you pass it along someone’s going to—” Natasha stopped in the middle, in what Steve could tell was carefully calculated surprise. “Clint’s not in the hangar anymore, is he?”

Agent Hughs turned around, and Natasha began walking off quickly. “Just do it,” Bruce said gently, patting the kid on the shoulder. “We’ll find Hill and get her permission, so nothing’s really out of order.”

Steve stepped out of the jet quietly and moved past Agent Hughs without the boy really noticing. Agent Hughs swallowed hard and nodded jerkily at Bruce even as Steve turned the corner and made his way to the conference rooms. If he couldn’t find Tony there, he’d move to Fury’s office, then Hill’s, then look down in engineering, but it made more sense that Tony would be discussing the upgrades of the engines in a conference room with head engineers, whoever that may be.

It was by sheer luck that Steve passed by Hill’s office on the way to the upper conference rooms (Tony preferred a lot of glass, a lot of light, and didn’t like to be reminded of dark caves or enclosed rooms, so the upper conference rooms made more sense than the lower).

“I don’t much _care_ , Stark, but you need to get your shit together!”

Steve paused outside Hill’s office. One of the many agents walking the hall nearly walked into him from behind, huffed at him, and then sidestepped around him with folders in her hand and a murderous look on her face.

Steve didn’t care; he was leaning against the wall besides Hill’s door and trying to listen in. The office wasn’t soundproofed, and that had been Fury’s voice, not Hill, yelling at Tony. Frowning, he closed his eyes and focused his senses, trying to pick up the muffled words even with all the chatter and movement in the hallway.

“Look, it’s almost done, alright? And I’m keeping up with SI, and I’m training regularly, so I don’t see why you have to come in here like you fucking _own_ —”

“Because I _do_ fucking own your ass, and you _know_ it, Stark!” Fury snarled back. “You are the face of the Avengers right now and there’s just too much negativity associated with your face. Maybe I should just pull you completely from the team if you’re going to fall asleep in board meetings and act like you don’t care about the rest of the world!”

There was a violent sound, and then Tony’s voice was low – not pleading, not exactly, but it wasn’t strong the way that Steve expected, but Steve put aside his confusion to listen to Tony’s answer. “Look, I was just tired. I’ll keep up. I’ve already pulled SI stock up with a few more gadgets, and you can’t tell me the Council’s pissed at my presence because I have filled so many different gadget requests for _you_ , and I know none of my team—”

“It’s not _your_ team,” Fury cut in.

The picture was suddenly starting to make sense, and Steve’s hands clenched into fists even as Tony said quietly, “None of _the_ team is upset with me or complaining. I’ve been making things for them and playing by the rules and not mouthing off so there’s no reason, no reason _at all_ , to threaten to pull me from the team—”

“You are on _probation_ , do you not understand what that word _means_?” Fury shouted, and Steve couldn’t stand it anymore.

He opened the door and stepped inside the office.

Fury was pacing the office, and Hill was sitting at her desk, papers spread out in front of her. Tony was slumped in a chair – or, at least, _had_ been slumped, because he was jerking up and around at the sound of the door opening and something very much like fear was in those eyes.

“Hey, Tony, I hoped to run into you!” Steve said, keeping his voice gentle and easy. “We found out that the doctors are keeping Clint from active duty for no good reason; Thor and Bruce went with Natasha to scare the stuffing out of them. I came up here because I figured, well, with Thor and Bruce and Natasha, they don’t really need me, do they?”

Tony swallowed roughly and put on a blank face with an empty smile. “You’re irreplaceable, Cap; they need you, I’m sure of it.”

“You’re supposed to report in if you land—” Hill began, but Steve cut her off easily.

“We did, don’t worry, but then Clint disappeared so before we could fill out everything most everyone left and the agent on duty didn’t seem to know what to do. So I said I’d come up here and let you know personally that we were all here. Which – I thought you were discussing engine plans, Tony, I thought I’d have to go searching a lot more to find you.”

Hill tapped the papers in front of her. “We are discussing engine plans.”

Steve gave her a flat-eyed stare and then turned back to Tony, who wasn’t looking terrified so much as confused, now. “So, we were thinking about going out as a team and visiting the Statue of Liberty. You’re a New Yorker, right?”

Slowly, Tony shook his head no. “I’m – I mean, I grew up here, but I haven’t been here for a while—”

“Ah. Well, we were hoping you’d help show us around. I mean, I know where things _should_ be but you young whippersnappers have changed around a lot of the landmarks I knew.”

That pulled a real smile from Tony – small, but real. Steve would shamelessly act the older grump if it meant pulling Tony out of this situation.

“We were in the middle of a meeting—” Fury began, but the words were weak – he knew Steve was outmaneuvering him, Hill had an idea, and Tony knew Steve was trying to do some maneuvering but of the four of them in the room, Tony was the one who didn’t seem to understand why. Still, he didn’t need to right now; he just needed to be taken out of the room and taken back to the team.

Steve waved it off. “It’s just checking for any problems, right, not actually upgrading them? After all, I know Tony was here just two weeks ago to spruce them up, but I can’t seem to find any complaints. Besides, sir, we’re all technically on leave, anyway. Right?”

Fury glowered, but Tony recognized the out Steve was offering. He stood up, brushing off his coat jacket, and strode to the doorway. It had been so long since Steve had seen Tony in a setting other than early morning kitchen that the dark circles and hollowed cheeks made Tony look much older and frailer than Steve was comfortable with seeing. Clasping a hand on Tony’s shoulder, he grinned widely at Fury and said pointedly, “Us Avengers have to stick together, right Tony?”

Now, _now_ Tony seemed to get it, because he froze mid-step and just stared, shock and surprise all over his face, and Fury’s eyes narrowed pointedly. “Tony Stark has a lot of responsibilities that he can’t put off, and he’s more of a – a _consultant_ than a full member—”

“See, sir, Tony’s thrown himself on the wire for us, multiple times, and I’m kinda thinking that makes him a full member. I didn’t realize there were probationary periods for _any_ of us, though that would explain why Clint’s still waiting on the test results. Out of curiosity, how long is my probationary period? I wouldn’t want to miss a review of my abilities and get kicked off of the team. After all, I do a lot less for them than Tony here.”

There was dead silence in the room for a long moment, and then Fury inclined his head. “Acknowledged, Captain.”

“With all due respect, sir, you can’t kick anyone off _my_ team unless I want them off – and I haven’t implied I was unhappy with _anyone’s_ performance,” Steve repeated, just to be crystal clear, and Fury grunted and folded his arms.

“I got it, Captain. You may regret it, but I got it. Your team.”

Patting Tony’s shoulder, he ushered the shorter man out the door and into the hallway.

“What – what was that? Steve, why the hell are you here?” Tony asked, but Steve wasn’t answering any questions at the moment, just steering Tony through the halls and back to the jet. Tony’s protests got increasingly louder as they passed by, but no one stopped for either of them and so Steve got Tony into the jet and sat him down before sitting across from him.

Tony was flushed, which made the dark circles stand out more, and his hands were trembling a little – though from anger or exhaustion or fear, Steve couldn’t tell. “I don’t understand this, Steve, and I don’t particularly know why you shanghaied me and dragged me here when—”

“You’re not a probationary Avenger, Tony.”

Tony’s mouth clicked shut.

Steve leaned forward, eyes intense and serious. “You _aren’t_. We need you as much as we need everyone else. You don’t need to work yourself to death because you’re trying to – what, win our approval? Tony, you had it the minute you suited up after Coulson’s death and made your way back into the fray immediately.”

Tony tapped his fingers against his chest – a nervous gesture, Steve knew. “Look, they did evaluations of me before any of this ever got off the ground—”

“I know. I read it. I read all of their files. Did you think I was really going to walk into battle without knowing who’d be by my side? I didn’t find anything objectionable in any of the files. Well,” he stopped, and let one corner of his mouth twitch wryly, “Calling congressmen assclowns and being found naked in fountains is kinda out there. But we’re fine. None of us want you gone, none of us will ask for you to leave, and if it comes down to it and Fury tries to kick you off, we’ll leave with you. So calm down? You scared us enough that we called Pepper in and tried to make her calm you down, only we managed to terrify her instead.”

That caught Tony’s attention, and he frowned. “Why is Pep upset?”

Steve stood up as Bruce walked into the jet. “Apparently, the last time you did something like this you were dying?”

Tony stared at Steve, bewildered, until comprehension flooded his face and a light blush appeared in his cheeks. “Ah. Well.” He turned and saw Bruce, and froze.

“Now, we can go wandering New York, or go collapse on your sofa and watch Wall-E again. Which one would you rather have?”

“I vote Wall-E!” Clint said enthusiastically behind Bruce, shoving past him and hip-checking Tony’s shoulder as he moved to sit down. “I’m in the mood to veg out and eat Chinese takeout!”

“Pizza,” Natasha corrected him.

Thor strode into the jet and closed it behind him. “Well met, my fellow warriors, we are all here and can return home!”

Steve started up the jet, watching out of the corner of his eye as Tony danced his way around an apology to Bruce and Clint, Natasha, and Thor bickered over food choices, and felt nothing but contentment. This was _his_ team.

Fury couldn’t touch it for the world.

 

*

Later, Natasha slid open one eye as she heard someone approach. The end credits were rolling on the movie, and apparently everyone had fallen asleep, sprawled either on the floor or the sofa. Natasha herself had claimed the armchair, so she had a good vantage point to see Pepper walk into the room and shake her head slowly at Tony.

Tony was splayed out over the couch, head in Thor’s lap, one leg across Steve’s thighs and the other off the couch, one hand fallen off the couch to brush against Clint’s knees, Clint’s head being propped in Bruce’s lap and Bruce sitting on the floor, back against the couch, side pressing against Tony’s leg and other side pressing against Steve’s calves. He looked, in some ways, like a king or a prince surrounded by his faithful harem, and Natasha had to pause because damn, some of those images looked pretty fine… but Tony was faithful to Pepper, who was currently shutting off the television, dragging a quilt down over Bruce and Clint, and then picking up the big bowl of popcorn and disappearing into the kitchen with it.

They had brought Tony home, Steve had called Pepper and told her what the problem had been (Pepper had been outraged, and Natasha shamelessly eavesdropped on the entire conversation), and then Steve had proceeded to make Tony completely aware of just how much the team enjoyed Tony for _Tony_ , not for what tech he could provide them with.

Pepper came out of the kitchen and carefully inserted herself between Clint and the couch, so she could lean over and brush hair out of Tony’s face.

He muttered under his breath and his eyes lazily opened.

“You are the dumbest genius I have ever known, and I wouldn’t trade you for the world,” Pepper whispered, and Natasha looked away as they kissed.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt is as follows:
> 
>  
> 
> So after Howard and Obie, Tony is bound to feel a little bit insecure. 
> 
>  
> 
> Post-avengers everyone sticks around and begins to be a tight-knit team. So Tony's reminded (Fury, Tony's brain, anything) that he was not originally on the team and one word from the rest and he could be lose it all. 
> 
>  
> 
> Tony then works himself into exhaustion, doing stuff to keep them happy, making them suits/armour etc.
> 
>  
> 
> Lots of comforty-ness when they do realise what's going on!! 
> 
>  
> 
> \- Bonus points if the team are worried, especially Bruce.  
> \- More Bonus points if Fury/SHIELD is warning Tony that he's on a trial period and the rest of the team have no idea.  
> \- Even more Bonus points if Steve is awesome


End file.
